


snakes on a plane

by neoncanvas21



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Conversations, Gen, Implied/Referenced Attempted Suicide, Implied/Referenced Suicide, i guess, it's yukio ofc, that's literally it - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 18:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30093405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoncanvas21/pseuds/neoncanvas21
Summary: Yukio spends a day on the Illuminati airship with Renzou before he meets Lucifer.
Relationships: Okumura Yukio & Shima Renzou
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	snakes on a plane

**Author's Note:**

> nothing happens i'm just vibing these two interacting

“Morning, Teach!” Shima Renzou greets, pushing away from the wall he’s leaning against across Yukio’s room.

“Ah, are you my guard?” Yukio asks, closing the door behind him. The hallway isn’t empty, with handfuls of Illuminati soldiers making rounds, but only Shima seems to be waiting for him, standing idle. How characteristic.

“Aw don’t put it like that. All the newbies need someone to show them the ropes and as your friend from school, I get the honor! Breakfast?” he gestures down the hall and Yukio falls in step with him.

“They don’t trust you to handle anything else, do they?” Yukio muses, nodding in greeting to the Illuminati they pass who stare skeptically at the duo.

“Well, I _am_ a spy,” Shima shrugs. “That’s a given.”

Yes, his status is well known to both sides. It’s a wonder he’s managed to escape unscathed from both so far, given his constant reminders to everyone that he’s dutifully reporting back, not even bothering to be discreet when he sneaks off from the rest of his classmates.

Naturally he’s on escort duty for someone who’d just defected, who he already knows from True Cross Academy. The Illuminati are wisely keeping their distance with their pawn, and Shima will gain nothing to use against them with this.

It seems that True Cross Academy is getting the short end of this deal, given Shima’s free to roam with his class, which always seems to be up close and personal with the action.

It didn’t escape Yukio’s notice that Mephisto’s orders always so happened to position Rin and his classmates just so, and Yukio could only pray that Mephisto’s plan at the time would put Yukio nearby to protect his brother.

Yukio knows Mephisto is gaining _something_ from this right now, but the demon’s web of motives remains impossible to untangle.

They find seats at an empty table in the cafeteria and begin eating. The conversation at the tables around them quiets slightly, weary gazes expecting eavesdropping. Yukio’s not sure if it’s him or Shima who’s the cause of it. Shima eats across from him without seeming to notice the aura around them, and eventually nods to his almost full plate.

“Not hungry?”

“I don’t eat much.” Yukio picks at his sausage and beans, a hasty and unfamiliar pick from the vast international selection. Shima nods and returns back to eating.

They sit in an uncomfortable silence, the kind between people who know each other just well enough they’re past the point of polite small talk, but are unable to do anything more.

“What am I supposed to do today?” Yukio asks, pushing the baked beans around with his fork. Unlike his escort, he’s been steadily observing the room around him and cursing Shima’s pick to put them in the middle of it. He is not technically surrounded by enemies, but he hates the vulnerable positioning. Only Shima can see who’s behind Yukio, and he wouldn’t trust the other to have his back.

Plus, he’s not used to the blindness on his left side. He’s constantly reminding himself not to turn that way to compensate, to not project that new weakness.

 _No_. It is a strength. His left eye is enviable, it’s why he’s here.

“Well, we weren’t expecting you to recover so quickly, so we don’t have any plans for you yet. Tomorrow the Commander will give you a personal tour of the good stuff, explain your purpose, thank you for your service, y’know,” Shima waves his hand around. “Get this show on the road.”

“Til then, consider it a free day,” he smiles. “Technically if you were a new recruit I’m supposed to show you our grand feats and technical accomplishments, but naturally I don’t know any of that and you’re just ‘visiting.’ We’re an odd case, you and I.”

Yukio takes in his unbuttoned uniform and bright hair among the sea of plain, orderly, and kempt soldiers. Certainly one of them is.

“I tell you where I want to go and you’ll take me there.”

“Bingo! General access areas only, of course. Think of me as your map, who just happens to be your lovable student.” Yukio grimaces.

“What, don’t like it, Teach?” Shima smiles knowingly.

“You’re well aware that is not our relationship anymore.”

“Is that permission to call you Yukio?”

“I have a last name.”

“But Okumura makes me think of Rin, and you’re not Rin.”

What a lovely reminder. And now his brother gets to capitalize on their shared last name?

“If I can call you Yukio, you can call me Renzou.”

“You will call me Okumura, Shima.”

“Fine, Teach,” Shima sighs in defeat.

“Take me to the library,” Yukio orders.

\---

Yukio’d told Shima to take him to the library thirty minutes ago, and despite the size of the airship he knows it shouldn’t be taking this long.

“Stop leading me in circles.”

“We haven’t repeated any of our path.”

“Stop trying to placate me with faux freedom,” Yukio says, annoyed. “If I can’t do anything, just say so.”

“You _can_ ,” Shima drags out. “But anywhere you wanna go is probably reserved for tomorrow’s special tour with the Commander.”

“And the library?”

“Can’t get to it without going through the lab, and like I said, special tour.” And he couldn’t have just said so?

“Then what was all of this?”

“Killin’ time.”

He knows he doesn’t technically have a position of authority over Shima, that he even told him he’s not his teacher anymore, but he wishes he could bark orders at the other and force him to listen. Yukio’s always been his superior, and he’s now beginning to know the misfortune of being Shima’s equal.

“Where _can_ I go?” At this point it would probably be better for him to just return to his room, at least give him a break from whatever game this is.

Shima takes a moment to visibly think, brows furrowed in concentration. “Training hall?” he offers. “You can’t use that,” he points to his own eye, “but you can join in otherwise. Make sure you don’t get too comfy and out of shape, plus you get the chance to see the might of our forces.”

Every day of Yukio’s life since he was seven has been training, training, training, never being strong enough to take a break yet being too stubborn to quit.

He’s tired of it.

The last thing he wants to do is more training, but Shima’s already leading the way and the more the distance grows between them, the more the other soldiers stop and stare, looking like they might intervene. The illusion of freedom. He can’t leave his guard.

“You’re late,” a higher up berates as they enter a large gymnasium, soldiers sectioned off performing various drills, and Shima rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“Sorry I wasn’t able to get a hold of you earlier. My duties were moved up a bit,” he gestures behind to Yukio during his half-hearted apology.

The lieutenant, based on the decorum and badges, takes one appraising look at Yukio before nodding and continuing his scolding. “You should’ve notified someone earlier, as is standard procedure! And button up that jacket…!”

The scolding continues for a few more minutes, Shima taking it all with a slightly admonished grin before he is released back to his caretaker duties.

“C’mon,” he gestures for Yukio to follow, and back they go to the endless hallways of the massive airship.

“We’re not actually training, then,” Yukio surmises blandly.

“Nah. I usually have training with Yamantaka but as you can tell I’m on duty. Just needed to check in, otherwise they’ll think I’m skipping, but I totally left my comm somewhere. Don’t rat me out!” he winks, sticking his tongue out, and Yukio wants to punch him. How quickly his former student is rising to become one of the most insufferable people he knows.

“You couldn’t have just told me, or let me go back to my room?”

“I’m giving you the grand tour! It’s a big place, do you even know how to get back?”

He would’ve figured it out, surely. Instead he’s being used as an excuse to shirk work.

“You’ll take me back to my room now though, yes?” Shima hmms and nods yet Yukio feels they’re walking in the opposite direction.

“How do you train with Yamantaka?” he asks, a few halls later. He’d heard a bit about the demon, seen it in action a handful of times, but even after Shima’d revealed his allegiances and returned to school, he’d still kept his familiar fairly under wraps. He’s curious.

“Sparring, usually. He comes out, touches enough people or demons, and I get tired and pass out.”

“I’m supposed to be testing my limits,” Shima grins. “You’d know all about that.”

Yukio ignores him.

“You should be doing that, then, instead of wasting the day away with me. Wouldn’t the Illuminati’s goals be better served with more competent soldiers?”

“Jeez, I get why you’re here. Same mentality,” Shima gripes. “I don’t like using him, he drains me.”

That’s all? How irritating.

He hates people who waste their talents and opportunities, who spit in the face of those who have to work hard to achieve the same.

No, he’s not thinking about his brother at all.

“You’re telling me you have a powerful demon as a familiar, something that makes you worthwhile enough to both the Illuminati and True Cross Academy that they’ll let this back and forth go, and the only reason you don’t become stronger with it is that it’s too much work?”

“You got it, Teach,” Shima laughs.

Unbelievable.

\---

They’re hanging around the observation deck as the sun sets, the one place they’ve gone so far where Shima wasn’t using him as an excuse to get out of whatever shift he was supposed to be doing. Supposedly this is all on the way back to Yukio’s room, but after ‘making a quick stop for lunch’ at another cafeteria, going to the helipad to talk Shima out of some responsibility, and even stopping by _Shima’s_ room to grab his comm so he could call in and put this farce to a rest, Yukio is resigned to the fact that he is stuck tagging along on Shima’s day-to-day until the other actually does elect to lead him through this maze.

“Whew, all this babysitting is exhausting!” Shima complains, lounging on one of the chairs by the window.

“You’re exhausting,” Yukio says, standing by the window, looking for a break in the clouds to help identify where they’re flying over now.

“Don’t lie, you love spending time with me.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Ouch,” Shima shrugs, nonplussed. “If you don’t love my company, then why’ve you been tagging along all day? It’s not like I made you come with me.”

Again with the illusion of freedom. “You are my assigned guard, somehow. Though based on what I’ve seen, literally anyone else would’ve been the better choice.”

“I don’t disagree, but this was decided long before you got here. This,” he gestures around, between them, “is part of my mission. I’m not done yet.”

“Care to elaborate,” Yukio bites at the transparent baiting after Shima offers nothing else, the conversation lapsing back into the silences they’ve had all day.

“I was tasked with bringing you over,” Shima grins. “And now I have to make sure you assimilate.”

And he’s doing a fine job of that. He’s spoken to no one else, knows nothing more than he did this morning after a day of wandering the halls with familiar company.

“I should’ve known. You weren’t very subtle, were you?” It does unfortunately explain the handful of short but startling one-on-one conversations they’d had that would worm into his thoughts and drive him closer to the brink.

“Some things require a delicate touch. You don’t.”

“I thought you were watching me for Mephisto,” he says, recalling the demon’s warning to cease his experimentation. He doesn’t know how Mephisto knew, but it would make sense for the well-known spy to be informing him.

“Shh,” Shima puts a finger to his lips with a wink. “But yeah, him too. Lovely how they overlapped like that, made my job way easier.” The confirmation that Shima’d tipped off both Mephisto and the Illuminati to his activities is a familiarly angry spark that ignites the simmering irritation he’s felt all day.

“How long were you watching?” Yukio grits out, praying for an honest answer.

“Hm, since you tried getting the naiads to drown you?” Shima answers uncertainly, like it’s difficult for him to recall the exact details of Yukio’s numerous attempted suicides, and now Yukio’s seething, his one-eyed glare narrowed at him.

“Jeez, Teach, I didn’t think you’d be this mad,” he puts his hands up in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture, though Yukio is sorely tempted to. “Didn’t seem like you wanted anyone to stop you so I didn’t do anything. Had to tell when I was asked though, you know how it is.”

That’s not what’s pissing him off. His lack of intervention was fine, preferable even.

It’s that Shima must’ve known it was Satan’s blue flame in his eye that kept saving him and he still let him keep experimenting over and over again until he figured it out himself.

“You couldn’t have hinted at it somehow, instead of just watching me suffer repeatedly trying to figure it out?” He spent _weeks_ slowly deteriorating, balancing sneaking off to experiment with his numerous other duties, when he could’ve known of his power, his potential, ages ago. He could’ve sped this whole thing along for the benefit of every party, but when it actually mattered the spy stayed silent.

“Aw, but I didn’t want to ruin your fun,” he smiles, and Yukio freezes.

“What?”

“Sure, during the build up you’re scared, human survival instinct and all, but then there’s this expression you get right before you black out and dear old dad comes to the rescue,” Shima’s never faltering grin grows wider. “You never look more alive than when you’re about to die.”

Yukio’s anger is snuffed out instantly.

“I know you liked it,” he singsongs, and there’s something more malicious in his knowing eyes that has a chill running down Yukio’s spine. “But I won’t tell, that knowledge isn’t pertinent for either side. Though it’d kill Rin if he knew, huh?”

“You won’t tell Rin,” Yukio says, and he’s not sure if it’s an order or if he’s trying to call his bluff.

“Maybe. Keep things interesting and I won’t get the chance.”

In the back of his head he—his father—points out this is just one of many cases demonstrating he’s weak and oh so vulnerable to the machinations of everyone around him. Yukio’s thoughts overwhelm him and the conversation ends while he pulls himself back together, but in that timespan he knows he lost whatever battle they were having.

Not that he cares if Shima told Rin, in fact Yukio ought to tell him himself just to see his brother try to comprehend what it means.

The sun finally dips beneath the clouds, and Shima stands up and mercifully leads him back to his room.

“This was fun! We should do this again sometime.” Yukio can’t share the same sentiment and resolves to avoid getting caught with his former student as his guard again. As he closes his door Shima bids him goodnight. “Rest up, big day tomorrow!”

It is a big day. He can’t wait to put this, and Shima, behind him.


End file.
